I wrote about this bee shirt on Twitter but wanted to write about it here, too. I love it so much. I might buy it in more colors.
(image from Amazon.com)
I was nervous about what size to order. I am long-torsoed, narrow-shouldered, medium-to-medium-small chested. Men’s/unisex shirts are typically terrible on me: huge/boxy in the shoulders, tight in the hips, shapeless/baggy in the waist. But women’s sizes (especially in graphic/fundraiser tees) tend to run small/fitted/short. I wear an XL Tall in Old Navy / Gap women’s shirts. Sometimes I wear an XL in other brands; sometimes I wear a 2XL (my Notorious RBG shirt is 2XL); sometimes nothing works because all the options are too small or too fitted or too short, or else too big or too baggy or too boxy.
I ordered a women’s 2XL in the bee shirt. I didn’t try it on before I washed it so I don’t know if it shrank; but after washing, it fit the way I like a cute comfy weekend t-shirt to fit: soft and casual and a little loose. And it was nicely long. If I were ordering a second shirt in another color, and I may very well do that, I’d risk the XL.
I also finally bought a bee mug. I’d been looking for awhile, but nothing seemed just right until this one:
I wish I could include a link, but I found it at a non-chain candy/card/gift shop, and it doesn’t have a brand name on it. They had one each of several similar mugs, and I narrowed it down to two and then asked my sister-in-law and my sister-in-law’s sister which they preferred, and they both preferred the same one, and it was the one I was leaning toward, so that was happy.
One more bee-related shopping story. I had a packet of Mrs. Grossman’s bee stickers, bought who knows where. As with most of the stickers I buy, for a long time they just sat in a cubby on my desk. Then when I started mailing stuff for the fundraiser, I started putting a bee sticker on the mailing label, and/or tearing off a little panel of stickers and putting them in with the book/earrings/whatever.
As I got low on bee stickers, I started nervously wondering where it was that I’d bought them. I suspected I’d found them while shopping with my sister-in-law and my sister-in-law’s sister, but those are stores outside of my usual rounds. I looked online, and that’s when I’d found information that the bee stickers had been discontinued, and that the stock remaining in stores was all that was left. And so I was greatly anticipating an upcoming shopping trip with my sister-in-law and my sister-in-law’s sister: MAYBE we would find the bee stickers!
We found the bee stickers:
They were at a crafts/stationery/gifts store. I bought all they had.
(Each time we talk about bee stuff, there are questions about what’s with the bee stuff. Here is the Erin Keane tweet that started it: Erin Keane tweet that started it. Here is the article she later wrote: Welcome to Bee Season. Bees have become a symbol of pissed-off liberal/progressive women. Here’s a whole post of gift ideas for same.)
You must know of Agathist, you will love them immediately. Exhibit A, the Bite Me pin: https://www.shopagathist.com/shop-1/bite-me-pin
Exhibit B, the art print “There are no flowers because the bees are dead.”
Combining feminism, environmentalism, and snark. Yes please.
Oops, link to the print: https://www.shopagathist.com/shop-1/agathist-no-flowers-print
I am a lifelong Sting fan (of the band the Police and “Every Breath You Take” fame) so I am always on the lookout for bee stuff!
Ha- my kids ‘ high school mascot is a hornet. I thought you were helping me accessorize my soirit wear. Nothing kike a favorite shirt.
I love all the progressive bee imagery! I might buy that shirt. It wasn’t for political reasons (though that would have made it even better!) but I threw my friend a bumblebee baby shower a few months ago and I’m still living for all the decor.
Just thought you’d like to know that my 13-year-old daughter is a Beatrix. She saw me looking at this shirt on Amazon because of you today and said, “HEY. Is that shirt for ME??” It wasn’t supposed to be, but shopping with a 13-year-old girl is so exhausting and she is SO rarely excited about something that I just said yes! She picked a color and we ordered it. Thank you!
<3 <3 <3
Another thing you may or may not know about bees; they are the symbol of Manchester, UK – specifically the worker bee. They’re everywhere here: on the bins, the pavement, buildings, etc. They came really into the fore after the bombs at the Ariana Grande concert – tattoo parlours all over the city did charity bee tattoos. Anyway, bees have always meant Manchester, and Manchester has always been a city of protest. Emily Pankhurst cam from here too.
I love this post so much, the tweet about the bees resonates with me.
Both my birthday and anniversary are coming up,I’ll have to share these ideas with my husband. Or just buy them for myself!
I’m not sure if you’ll still see this since I’m so late to the party, but I searched online trying to find a bee mug like the one you posted, and I fell in love with this Kate Spade bee travel mug. I put it in my wish list and my husband got it for my birthday. To be fair, it’s not the best quality mug in existence, but it is so damn cute I dont even care. It makes me so happy every time I see it!
https://www.amazon.com/Kate-Spade-New-York-Insulated/dp/B078X5G4BP/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=kate+spade+bee+mug&qid=1566561333&s=gateway&sr=8-1
SO CUTE!!!
Each time I come here and this post is on top, I immediately hear Eddie Izzard in my head going “Covered in beeees!” and it cracks me up.
https://youtu.be/Wm593aA62OI?t=145
I am in the Amazon Merch program (a program that allows independent designers to upload designs that Amazon then prints and ships to their customers, paying the designer a design commission fee), and I have some good news for you: that shirt you like the cut, fit and feel of? It’s a Merch shirt. So there are literally tens of thousands of designs you can get printed on that very same shirt blank. The giveaway is usually the sizing chart as the second image.
It’s a really neat program, and I once even connected to someone through your comments section who had a custom shirt request that I did for her, so that was pretty awesome! Thanks Swistle! And she let me know she was super happy with it too, though for some reason the review she wrote on it disappeared. I’ll link it up in my name if you’re curious (non-affiliate link).